Traditional online services, such as banking, shopping, and social networking, rely on an exchange of user-identifying information to segregate and secure users' data. Typically, this is accomplished by associating a username and password with a specific user. Often, the online service will also obtain personal information about the user to help verify the user's identity, such as the user's social security number and the maiden name of the user's mother.
Many traditional online services share data about their users with other users of the service. In some cases the data is shared with the world at large, and in some cases, the data is shared with a specific subset of users. This access is again typically accomplished through a username and password system.
Some traditional online services attempt to provide a level of added security for its users by implementing a number of existing security protocols to facilitate communication security. For example, a number of services implement the Transport Layer Security (TLS) or the Secure Sockets (SSL) Layer protocols. Others use a Secure Shell (SSH) for data exchange.